Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm - Chapter 4
The fourth chapter of Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm. This is the first chapter to feature one of the plot's villains, though he is yet to be named by this point, and it also features the duel at Hinata. Chapter Synopsis The chapter opens in the evening, as the sun is beginning to set over Hinata. Mutsumi Otohime, in a strange display of empathy, is picking up the worst of all human emotions in a slew and onslaught. Shocked, she speaks of a being or creature that for years has remained asleep or dormant, and she questions why now of all times it would awaken. The woman throws open her curtains of her apartment complex and looks out across the town to where the Hinata-Sou stands. The sun is casting a bloody red glow behind the building as she sets. An omen, she realizes. The scene shifts to three hours later in the entrance of the Hinata-Sou, where Mitsune Konno welcomes back Seno Nakakami, Motoko Aoyama, Naru Narusegawa and Keitaro Urashima from their double date to the movies. As the couples spat about over who spent less time watching the movie than the other, sparked by Kitsune's barbed questions, Shinobu Maehara comes downstairs to quell the fighting with a simple question on how good the movie was. Keitaro leaps on the chance to change the subject, and all of those present switch gear into talking about the movie, which turns out to be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The six talk for a time about the elements of the movie, with Kitsune and Shinobu being a little lost in the conversation. Shortly, Motoko shifts position and Kitsune notices a necklace around the swordswoman's neck that was not there previously. Seno goes on to explain, after Motoko's embarrassment, that it's an Aztec gold necklace, cursed to boot. Shinobu grows fearful and Seno proceeds to play his ploy up by explaining how the conquistador Cortex slaughtered the Aztecs, but they cursed him with a chest of cursed gold that would make them living dead. Seno tops it off with scaring the poor girl with a mask and a direct quote from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Motoko scolds Seno brutally and comforts Shinobu. Seno apologizes and explains that the gold isn't real and that it's merely from the first movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Shinobu asks then what the gold around Motoko's neck is, if not real. Motoko and Seno explain that it's a locket he got for her. Coaxed in by the sweetness of the gift, Shinobu's fear is forgotten and Shinobu pleads that Motoko not stay mad at Seno and that she'll forgive Seno if the man lets her borrow his DVD of the movie. He agrees. The next scene opens only shortly after midnight to a strange spirit or being manifesting within Seno's room in the form of a young boyish man a head shorter than the swordsman, clad in Meiji period clothing. Seno, whom is asleep, can feel the sinister being but can't awaken, as if he is in a forced sleep. The spirit takes on Seno's appearance and speaks, though his mouth does not move. He explains that Seno has gotten careless, though he was never aware of the fact that he avoided attaching himself to things, he now cares so much for Motoko that the spirit can use this to his advantage. The spirit leaves to go to Motoko's room. The swordswoman is deep in sleep when the spirit enters and, using some sort of magic, the spirit makes it so that Motoko can't move, though she is wide awake now that she had realized he is there. Thinking the spirit is Seno, Motoko feels the spirit removing the covers from her body. Her vision clouds with tears and her mind with turmoil as the spirit, with all of Seno's likeness, rapes her. Morning dawns and finds the residents of the Hinata-Sou at breakfast, sans Motoko. Naru watches Seno from the corner of her eye and notes that he looks very upset at the woman's absence. In her room, Motoko awakes. Though in pain, she believes the events of last night only a dream until noticing blood and semen. Vision clouding with tears once more, she pitches her head back and lets out a wail that can be heard throughout the house. Downstairs, the residents of the Hinata-Sou all hear this and Seno is the first to leap to his feet and head upstairs. He bounds up the floors of the Inn, the others no long behind him, and swings opens door to Motoko's room to find the scene the woman awoke to. Shocked and worried, he asks her what happened. But, at the sight of her believed rapist, Motoko attacks in a rage that exceeds any she's ever displayed before. Seno and Motoko get into a heated fight, though Seno reluctantly only defends himself. He attempts to reason with his girlfriend, and she angrily exclaims that there's nothing to discuss and she grows angrier at Seno's questions. Meanwhile, Shinaijou weeps liquid due to Motoko's heartbreak. Seno remains on the defensive, reluctant at all to attack his loved one. The battle leads them to the laundry deck where they stand at a stand-still for a moment's time. Motoko's rage leads her to at least mention what happened and Seno, who stares in disbelief over something Motoko claims he has done, goes numb. Shinaijou shatters. Seno kneels, beging Motoko to kill him for what, though he has no memory of, had done. Motoko despite it all, in tears, can't kill him due to her love of him. So Seno grabs the end of Motoko's blade and does it for her. The Youto Hina blade slides through Seno's body, killing him in Motoko's arms. With Seno's death and Motoko's tearful crying, the spirit rises from Seno's body and begins to laugh. The residents of the Hinata look at him as he belittles Motoko for believing that Seno had truly raped her and goes on to boast that he was the culprit. And, now that Seno is dead, he is no longer bound to the man's soul. With that, he fades away to the sound of Motoko's screams of agony. Characters References to Other Media *''Pirates of the Caribbean'' **Davy Jones **Jack Sparrow **James Norrington **Will Turner Category:Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm Chapters